Water: A Portfolio of Student Learning

Using your water log (and average water use from the days you logged), calculate what your average water use per year might be.

           My average using my water log would have been about 109,500 liters of water. I got to this estimate because my rounded up average of water usage per day was about 300 liters of water. So, i multiplied 300 by 365 and i got to 109,500 liters of water.

What is your estimated water footprint as found using the water calculator on www.waterfootprint.org? (Express in both cubic meters per year and liters per year)   Does this surprise you in any way? Why?

          My estimated water footprint using water calculators was 445,000 liters of water. In cubic meters, my water footprint was 445. So I mulitiplied that by 1000 (since 1 cubic meter = 1000 liters of water) and I got 445,000 liters of water.

          This surpised me a lot because it was about 4-5 times bigger than my water footprint using my water log. Also, it surprised me because i didnt think that i would use that much water. At the same time i wasn't that surprised because in my water log, i had things that were inaccurate. Things like my food cumsuption and "hidden" water usage were very inaccurate in how many liters were used in the product. We didn't acctually know how much water was used in the making of the product(Or maybe we did and we didn't put it in our log!).

3. Think about your average per year from #1 and your estimated water footprint from #2.  Which one is greater?  Why?  How big an impact does “hidden” water use seem to have on your overall water use?

          The estimate from water calculators was bigger because the measurment was much more higher. The estimate was higher because they asked us things that we didn't accurately put in our water log. "Hidden" water usage has a big effect on our water usage because we dont actually know how much water is actually being used. This is a problem because if we don't know how much water we use, we don't know when and how to make a difference or how to lower our water footprint. "Hidden' water usage is the amount of water whuch you cannot actually measure when you are using water. For example, swimming would be considered hidden water usage!

Use the figures in the table below to help answer questions 4 and 5.

 How does your water footprint compare with the average footprint of the USA?  Why do you think this is so?

         My water footprint compaired to USA's average person water footprint is really small because mine is about 6 times less than the then a persons water footprint in USA. In a developed country like the United States, we don't take under consideration on how much water we use. Having such a large infrastructure changes our thinking methods on how we use water. I compare to the average person equaly in the way that here in the US, we all use water. We all need water to survive and we have that water. We are different in the way that I use more wat

How does the average USA water footprint per person compare with that of other countries around the world?  Why do you think such differences exist? 

          From the countries that are listed, the United States has a larger water footprint than any other country. There are so many differences because there are countries that people are missing water. There are countries that people are dying because of lack of water. Also, there is a lot of population in some countries than in others. The US might also be taking advantage of how much water we have. Since we all see clean, running, fresh water every day coming out of our faucets, we dont canre about others who don't actually have that much water or no fresh water at all. Being a very developed country has causeed us to think, act, and respond in this cruel way to ourselves, and the others in this world.

  How does your water footprint - and that of every human on earth - play a role in the water cycle?  What positive or negative Biosphere <-> Hydrosphere connections might be created by our individual water footprints?

         We all play a role because we use water for many of the things we do . For example, we drink it, we bath in it, and we also conduct energy with it (Hydroelectric Power). If our water keeps getting polluted, we wont have alot of clean water to drink. Our wildlife will die, and our plants will die. Water is essential for mostly everything on earth!